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Robert Covington: 'We're Learning How To Finish Games'

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The 13-26 76ers will look to continue their run of strong play tonight as they welcome the Atlantic Division leading Toronto Raptors to the Center.

The Sixers have won six of their last eight games and forward Robert Covington is having a lot of fun being a part of one of the best stretches of basketball for this team in quite some time.

"We've changed the dynamics of things as of late and we've really been playing great basketball," Covington tells KYW Newsradio. "And we're really having fun doing it. A lot of guys have really taken to the mindset of what our roles have been and we're playing together, playing smarter and we're playing some of the best basketball we've seen in awhile."

Listen to the entire interview with Sixers forward Robert Covington:

 

Of course the emergence of center Joel Embiid is one really big reason why the 76ers are playing at a higher level these days. Embiid is listed as questionable for tonight's game due to an illness.

But another key factor is the fact that unlike the last few years (and earlier this season) the team is making big plays down the stretch of close games. Covington himself hit a shot with under a second left to beat Minnesota on January 3rd and last Wednesday T.J. McConnell beat the Knicks by hitting a jumper at the buzzer.

"That's been one of the key things that we've done,"Covintgton says. "We're learning how to finish games. In previous years we've been in close games, but then at the end we get stagnant, we'd get lost in the execution. But now we're really focused in our execution and we really lock in to our defensive principles and we really stay to it and we hold each other accountable with the guys that we have."

Tonight, the Sixers will face a big challenge in the Raptors who are 28-13 on the season and riding a four-game winning streak. Toronto has won the first two meetings between the two teams (122-95 on 11/28 in Toronto and 123-114 on 12/14 at the Center).

"We've got to hold their guys, (guards) DeMar DeRozen and Kyle Lowry," Covington says. "We've got to contain those guys because they are the keys to the team."

DeRozen (28.2) and Lowry (22.2) are combining to average more than 50 points per game this season for Toronto.

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